Non-woven industrial textiles formed from one or more layers of sheet or film materials are known and have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,454,800 (Mourad et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 8,394,239 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,388,812 (both to Eagles et al); U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0081772 (Eagles et al); U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0027997 (Mourad et al); U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0021171 (Riviere et al); U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0272112 (Aberg et al); U.S. Patent and Application Publication No. 2010/0239814 (Mourad et al), for example.
These known industrial textiles can be formed from a polymeric film which is drilled with a cutting device, such as a laser, to provide through apertures that allow for porosity throughout the assemblies. Alternatively, the non-woven textiles can be produced by spirally winding strips of polymeric material, such as an industrial strapping or ribbon material, and joining the adjoining sides of the strips of material using ultrasonic welding or laser welding techniques. A non-woven textile formed in this manner is subsequently perforated to make it permeable to air and/or water. However, such textiles are not easily seamed, and, there is no internal structure which helps to maintain a separation and void volume between layers of panels. As such, it is difficult to provide flow paths for both water and air to permeate throughout the textile.
Further examples include U.S. Pat. No. 8,784,615 (Straub), U.S. Pat. No. 8,815,057 (Eberhardt et at), U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0021178 (Miller et al); and PCT Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2005/042836 (Sayers); WO 2008/145420 (Bez et al); WO 2014/001172, WO 2013/010678 and WO 2012/123439 (all to Straub et at) disclose various arrangements to provide a continuous belt for use as an industrial textile, particularly as a papermaking fabric. The latter is formed from strips of a perforated film material joined edge to edge. However, such arrangements may not provide adequate flexibility and permeability throughout the entire non-woven industrial textile. Furthermore, the component strips are difficult to assemble and seam.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,563,114 (Manninen) discloses an industrial textile formed from two interconnected layers of a polymer film. Each layer is contoured by embossing or similar process to raise portions of the film; and cutting slits through the film to create apertures in the raised portions. This arrangement allows for the passage of fluid (for example, liquid drainage or air passage) through the textile. U.S. Pat. No. 8,563,114 further discloses that the central body portion of each strip of film can be selectively slit and embossed to provide a plurality of regularly arranged protrusions extending from a first planar surface of the film outwardly from the opposing second surface and in which the apertures are located. The resulting fabric is formed from a plurality of similarly profiled strips interconnected to provide a two layer film assembly; the strips are either lap or butt joined along the longitudinal side edges by a welding or similar bonding process, or are interconnected by inserting a filamentary material across their width through aligned apertures passing through arrays of similar protrusions. The resulting textile is then rendered endless and seamed using a seaming element such as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0040150 (Manninen).
It would be desirable if the component strips used in the construction of industrial textiles as described by U.S. Pat. No. 8,563,114 could be joined in a manner such that the edges of the strips could be removed from the wear plane of the textile and thus not exposed to abrasion or fraying due to their passage over various stationary elements in the machine or process in which the textile is to be used.
It has now been found that selectively slit and profiled panels can be formed from a single layer of a profiled planar material and interconnected in a novel manner to shield the lateral edges from machine elements. The panels are structured and arranged so as to maintain a separation and void volume between the two assembled layers of panels. The configuration of the panels provides for interior join areas within the panel assembly. In this manner, free ends at the edges of, or in between, any two panels in each layer, are located interior to the double layer assembly so as to avoid fraying or entanglement.
In such an arrangement, the industrial textile has flexibility and porosity that is similar to that of a woven textile. In addition, since each individual panel is selectively slit and profiled before interconnection with another panel, subsequent perforation steps are not required.